


if I could buy forever at a price

by ohmcgee



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman Beyond, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Happy Ending, Immortality, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 13:55:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6472663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmcgee/pseuds/ohmcgee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>All Dick had to say was “experimenting” and “children” and <i>Batman needs you</i> and Jason was at his doorstep a week later, a duffle bag over his shoulder and a grin on his face that hasn’t changed in -- too many years. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	if I could buy forever at a price

**Author's Note:**

> AU where Jason's little dip in the lazarus pit had the side effect of immortality because reasons. Based off of [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6472654) drabble.
> 
> [ARTS!!!](http://roadnorth92.tumblr.com/post/147230687160/ive-just-read-ohmcgeethe-amazing-authors)

All Dick had to say was “experimenting” and “children” and _Batman needs you_ and Jason was at his doorstep a week later, a duffle bag over his shoulder and a grin on his face that hasn’t changed in -- too many years. 

“I’m glad you came,” Dick says. “It’s pretty messed up and the kid, he’s good, but --”

“You need someone with a little more experience?” Jason grins and cocks his hip against the counter, pops one of Dick’s chips in his mouth. 

About that time is when Terry walks through the door. He gave up knocking a long time ago and just barrels in like he owns the place.

“Hey Grayson,” he says. “I think -- who --”

“This is Batman?” Jason snorts and Terry’s eyes get almost as big as his face, his shock quickly turning to confusion turning to anger. 

“You _told_ him? Who even is he? I can’t believe you - after _all_ the lectures --”

“Terry, calm down.”

“Oh my god, you just told him my _name_?” Terry shrieks. “Have you -- are you under some kind of mind whammy or something?”

Jason snickers. “You’re a fiesty one,” he says. “But really, calm down junior. I’m a friend of the family.” 

Terry shoots him a glare that Jason is pretty sure would work on anyone who wasn't him, who didn’t know exactly who taught him how to glare like that. 

“It’s fine, Terry. He’s a friend. Well, an ally. Well.” Dick deliberates. “You can trust him.”

“Why?” Terry asks, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t even know him.”

“Because I do.”

Jason watches as Terry deflates under Dick’s glare and feels a bit sorry for the kid. He remembers that feeling pretty well. "Fine. I'm on my way to class, I’ll just...check in with you later.” 

Jason cranes his head and watches Terry walk off, smirks when Dick clears his throat at him.

"He's _pretty_ , Dickie."

"Of course he is, " Dick says, rolling his eyes as he grabs a water bottle from the fridge. " He's eighteen."

"You sleeping with him?"

“Jesus, Jay,” Dick splutters, blushing under all the wrinkles and scars. “No.”

“Bruce was, definitely.”

Dick frowns. “I’m not going to think about that.”

“Hm,” Jason says, hopping up on the edge of Dick’s counter. “I could stand to think about it a little more.”

“Jay,” Dick sighs. “Terry has a lot on his plate. He’s going to college. He has his mother and his younger brother, his secret identity. It’s not like it was for us.”

“And you’re telling me this why?” Jason says, yawning. 

 

“Because,” Dick says. “Even if I haven’t seen you in fifteen years I will still recognize that look on your face and know you’re up to something.”

Jason smirks. “Well I mean if _you’re_ not gonna.”

Dick levels a glare at him. “Leave the poor boy be, Jay. He’s got enough to deal with.”

Jason lets out a put-upon sigh, hops down from the counter and pokes Dick in the chest. “Fine,” he says. “Fifty years old and you’re still cockblocking me. That takes some skill, you know that?”

Dick grins, yanks him in for a hug. “It’s good to have you back, Jay.”

“Yeah whatever,” Jason says, breathing Dick in before he pushes him off of him. “Where’s your booze. We need to get _drunk._ ”

 

: : :

 

Jason figures out where Dick hides his good stuff and they camp out in the living room, drinking and talking about old times, smiling when they reminisce about roof top tag and eating chili dogs, remembering a time before cars flew and people could become _actual_ cats. Then he gets Dick drunk enough he’ll actually talk to him about Bruce without staring off into space or changing the subject. There’s only two people who are off limits and Jason’s glad he still knows Dick well enough that neither of them will bring up the other. 

Hours later Jason ends up in the floor sitting between Dick’s legs and once they finish the bottle and everything goes quiet he puts his hand on Dick’s thigh, turns his head and lays his cheek on the inside of it.

Dick looks down at him and threads his fingers into his hair. He can’t stop staring at Jason no matter how hard he tries, no matter how much Jason hates it. It never gets easier to look at him and still see the boy he was decades ago, his skin just as soft and flawless as it was before. He’s gorgeous and shining with youth and it hurts Dick’s heart so _much_ just to look at him. 

“Okay,” he murmurs, thumb tracing over Jason’s jaw, because it’s been so long since he’s had someone under him who knows who he really is, who doesn’t look at him and see an old man with a bum eye, doesn’t see wrinkles and grey hair and age spots. When Jason looks at him all he sees is a mouthy, self-righteous kid in black and blue, and when Jason gets his mouth on him, when they tumble into Dick’s bed and Jason holds onto him like he’s holding onto something important, something amazing, Dick actually feels like that boy again, the one who thought everyone was worth saving. 

When Jason curls around him that night and snores against his shoulder, Dick feels every bit his age. 

 

: : :

 

“Hey, Dick.” Terry says when he walks into the loft the next morning. “It’s just me, came by to do a couple of more drills before -- oh.”

Jason’s standing in the kitchen with nothing but a towel around his waist, his hair dripping all over the tile as he pours a cup of coffee. 

“Want some?” Jason asks and Terry just kind of gawks at him. “Coffee, I mean.” Jason smirks. 

Then Dick comes out of the bedroom toweling off his hair. “Morning, Terry,” he says, happier than Terry’s maybe ever seen him look and Terry looks back and forth between the two of them before he flushes with the realization.

“Geeze,” he mutters, then quickly head off to the equipment to practice. 

Jason laughs. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say he was jealous,” he says and gives Dick a wink before snatching his toast out of the toaster. 

After he finishes eating breakfast, Jason gets dressed and walks over to watch Terry do his thing. Boy can move, that’s for sure. Jason just stands there, leaning up against some kind of balancing beam while Terry flips and spins, moves he’s seen Dick use thousands of times that he couldn’t ever really get right, but Terry pulls off fluidly. 

“I still don’t know who you are,” Terry says when he finishes up his training, walks over and grabs his water bottle and stares at Jason as he drinks his fill. He shed his shirt sometime during all the flipping and his little shorts are slipping off his hips enough that Jason’s mouth waters a little. 

“Hm,” Jason says. “We should do something about that then, huh?”

So that night, Jason accompanies Terry on patrol. Well, he doesn’t accompany him so much as he follows him around Gotham and criticizes every move he makes, hacks into his comms and laughs at him when he almost falls off a building, but near the end of the night Terry gets into a jam, surrounded by a dozen or more of those fucking Joker freakfaces, so Jason is more than happy to jump in and help him out. Turns out, they work pretty well together. Terry can pull off Dick’s moves like they were wired into him, but in close quarters he fights a lot like Jason. 

Jason is actually pretty surprised by how good he is. He’s nothing like Bruce, not in years or experience or pretty much anything else, but he _is_ Batman. He’s pretty funny too and Jason wonders for a bit if he picked that up from Dick, but then he remembers that Dick hasn’t been much for witty banter and one-liners for a while now. No, the more they work together, Jason realizes Terry’s got his own style, his own personality, his own life. He has a mom and a brother, goes to school. He has friends that aren’t capes and before Jason can stop the thought in it’s tracks, he thinks Terry reminds him a lot of Tim, so headstrong and determined not to let what he does in the night define who he is. 

“You okay over there?” Terry shouts over the raucous when one of the Jokerz catches him when Jason gets distracted by his thoughts and the freak’s knife grazes his helmet.

“Fine,” Jason says. “Just a flesh wound.”

“You know I don’t get that reference,” Terry says and Jason laughs so hard he chokes.

 

: : :

 

“So, Terry seems to be coming around,” Dick says one afternoon, eyeing Jason suspiciously.

“Yeah,” Jason says, mostly ignoring him as he flips through the bazillion channels on Dick’s tv. “He’s not too bad.”

“You know, when I first met him,” Dick says. “He kind of reminded me of you.”

“Me?” Jason laughs. “Nah, not stupid enough.”

Maybe you’re right.” Dick grins, then goes quiet for a moment. “Maybe he just reminds me of a little bit of all of us. My blind optimism, your stubborn recklessness, Tim’s --”

Jason flinches and he knows Dick saw it, so he gets up off the couch to busy himself with something, digs around in the silverware drawers to see if Dick still keeps batarangs hidden in weird places. 

Over on the couch he hears Dick sigh.

“I saw him the other day.” Dick says, ignoring every single one of Jason’s fuck off cues. “He’s doing good.”

Jason doesn’t respond to that either, except for rattling the silverware around louder hoping to drown him out. 

“I didn’t tell him you were in town.”

Jason slams a drawer.

“But I think you should.”

“Yeah? Well I think you should mind your own fucking business,” Jason snaps and grabs his jacket off the back of the couch.

“Jay,” Dick says, getting up off the couch, tries to stand between him and the way to the door, but Jason walks around him. “Where are you going?”

“Don’t worry,” Jason snaps. “I’m not going to kill anybody.”

 

***

 

The club is too bright and too loud and it reeks of sweat and too much cheap perfume and cologne. Jason has a few drinks at the bar before he starts to make his way through the crowd. He’s still got Dick’s voice in his head, still has the bad taste of memories he’d pushed down for so long trying to come up. He just needs to clear his head, needs to fucking _forget._

He drags some kid with short spiky hair with glasses to the bathroom and shoves him against the wall and kisses him, but it’s all wrong. He goes pliant beneath him, doesn’t squirm or dig his nails into the back of Jason’s neck, doesn’t bite at his mouth or pull his hair, and it makes Jason a little sick. 

He walks back out and starts to head for the door when he sees a familiar head of black hair laying on top of a balled up leather jacket. Upon closer inspection, it’s definitely Terry, completely passed out in the middle of a fucking club. Jason laughs and slides next to him in the booth. 

“Wakey wakey, princess,” he says next to Terry’s ear and Terry jumps up, hyper alert, then scowls at him. 

“What are you doing here?”

“What are _you_ doing here?” Jason shoots back. “Get lost on the way to your bed?”

“I was --” Terry yawns. “-- dancing.”

“Oh yeah,” Jason rolls his eyes. “You’re the life of the party all right. You’ve got some drool just there, by the way.”

Terry blushes and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Come on, you idiot,” Jason says, tugging on his arm. “You’re as bad as Bruce. I’m taking you home.”

Terry tries to insist that he’s fine, that the little cat nap gave him a boost, but Jason’s had to wrangle a fully _grown_ Batman into bed before, he can sure as hell handle this little twig of a thing. 

He hands Terry the extra helmet for his bike and types in the GPS for Terry’s dorm, then Terry wraps his arms around Jason’s middle and they speed off. Though Jason’s pretty sure Terry passes on on his shoulder at some point. If he drools on the leather he’s gonna be fucking pissed.

 

: : :

 

When Jason stops the bike and turns it off outside Terry’s dorm, Terry wakes up and wipes his mouth, blinks his eyes a few times.

“Oh hey,” He says. “I meant to tell you. I found a back-way into that site you and Dick have been trying to get into.”

“You mean you hacked it,” Jason grins.

“I have other skills than flips and shit,” Terry grins back and Jason laughs. “Come up and I’ll show you what I found.”

“Uh,” Jason says, glancing at the building. “Don’t you have a roommate or something?”

“Yeah, but he texted and said he’s staying somewhere else tonight. Wanted me to feed his fish,” Terry explains so Jason shrugs and follows him up to the dorms.

When they get up to Terry’s room, Terry offers him a beer from the mini fridge and then starts up the laptop on his bed, showing Jason the information he found. Jason wedges himself on the bed next to Terry to get a closer look, then types in a few things and helps Terry get in even deeper and find the rest of the blueprints they need. 

“Great,” Terry says, shutting the lid to the laptop. “Thanks. I guess we’re all set then.”

“Yep,” Jason says. There’s barely any light left in the room with the laptop shut, but he can still see it when Terry glances down at his mouth and licks his lips. 

“I should go.” Jason says. Because...he should. Go. Probably. Dick would.

Terry sits his computer down on the floor next to his bed. “Probably,” he says, then he’s pushing Jason onto his back and climbing on top of him. He barely weighs a thing; it’s ridiculous. 

“Or not,” Jason grins and runs his hands up Terry’s back, then grabs the fabric of his shirt and pulls it off over his head. Terry shivers when Jason runs his palms down his chest, whimpers a little when he tweaks his nipples. 

“Look at you,” Jason says. “Barely a scratch on you.” His skin is practically flawless. It’s either the suit or just the lack of years of sacrificing his body or a little bit of both, and it’s weird how _wrong_ it seems to Jason.

“So,” Terry says, leaning down to drag Jason’s lobe between his teeth. “Maybe you should give me a few, then.”

“Fuck yeah,” Jason says and fucks his tongue into Terry’s mouth, gets his hand in all that hair and tugs him to the side for a better angle. He runs his nails down Terry’s back, swallowing every pretty moan and groan he’ll give him, then he pushes his jeans and underwear down and gets his hand around his dick. 

“Fuck, wait. I want,” Terry mumbles, then he’s reaching for Jason’s jeans and Jason lifts his hips so Terry can pull them down, _groans_ when Terry gets back where he was and their dicks slide together.

Jason keeps his hands on Terry ass, sucking and biting at Terry’s throat, marking him all up and just letting Terry use him, murmuring filth into his skin to get him to lose it and come for him, hot and sticky against Jason’s hip.

Then Jason flips him over and ruts against the crease of Terry’s ass until he digs his nails deep into Terry’s hips and bites Terry’s shoulder when he comes. 

Afterward they share a smoke, the two of them nearly falling off Terry’s tiny twin size bed.

“Dick would kill me,” Terry laughs softly and Jason smiles.

“You know he’s never going to come to you,” he says. “You’re going to have to be the one to take that first step. He’s worried you’ve got too much on your plate already.”

Terry sighs, looks up at the ceiling and exhales a cloud of smoke. “Maybe that’s why I need…” He trails off.

Jason sits up and pulls on his pants. “Well tell him that,” he says. “You don’t know it yet, but this life is going to consume you. And it’s going to get fucking lonely. And sometimes you’re going to think it’s easier to just push people away because then you don’t have to deal with losing them or letting them down.”

Terry sits up, still gorgeously naked and covered in sweat and come and Jason’s almost never seen anything prettier. “We still talking about me and Grayson?”

Jason glares at him. Already too much Batman in this kid already. “Just be good to him,” he says, reaching for the door. “Or I’ll break your fucking neck, Batman or not.”

Terry grins. “You could try.”

 

***

 

Jason knows something’s up when he wakes up on Dick’s couch the next morning and Dick’s sitting in the chair opposite him, his fingers steepled under his chin. 

“Nope,” Jason grumbles and rolls off the couch, gets to his feet and slowly staggers in the direction of the kitchen. “No world ending shit before I’ve had coffee.”

Dick thankfully waits until Jason brews the coffee and adds enough sugar to stand a spoon in, lets him get back on the couch before he gives him the _look_ and Jason sighs and waves his hand at him. 

“Fine,” he says, taking a sip of coffee. “Give it to me.”

“Five more kids disappeared last week,” Dick says. “Babs has had her guys on it all week.”

“Yeah,” Jason says, setting his cup down on the coffee table, giving _Dick_ a look. “And?”

Dick scrubs his face with his hand, doesn’t quite meet Jason’s eyes. “They found them last night,” he says quietly and Jason --

“Fuck,” he says and stares straight across the room at Dick’s beige as fuck walls. Dick doesn’t even flinch when Jason flings the coffee cup at it and it shatters, coffee staining the wall in huge splatters. “Well.”

“We need to call him,” Dick says, watching Jason too carefully. “We need more help, Jay. We still don’t know where these guys are based out of, what they’re even _doing_ to the --”

“I know,” Jason says, letting his head fall back against the couch. 

Dick waits a few moments before he says, “I can call him. If you --”

“No,” Jason says. He’s a big boy. He doesn’t need Dick to make phone calls for him and dance around things just so he doesn’t feel _uncomfortable._ Even if his hands are already shaking a little just thinking about it. “I’ll do it.”

Dick just shrugs. “If you’re sure.”

Jason’s not, but he’s going to do it anyway.

 

: : :

 

Tim opens the door on the sixth knock, stares him straight in the eye, and slams the door in his face. 

Jason sighs and cops a squat on the steps, lights up a cigarette. There’s still red paint on the sidewalk from that time Jason was repainting his bike, the grass is too tall, like it hasn’t been mowed in months, and all the numbers have faded from the mailbox. Jason waits on the porch for about ten minutes, is getting ready to grab his shit and go when Tim finally comes out and stands over him, arms crossed over his chest.

“I know you’re only here because you need something, so spit it out so we can get this over with.” He says. Jason looks up at him, then decides he wasn’t quite ready for that and looks back down at the cracks in the concrete.

“Kids,” He says, exhaling a cloud of smoke. “Some asshole is experimenting on kids. Whatever they’re doing to them, it’s -- they found three of them last night. Bleeding from the eyeballs.”

“I’ll get dressed,” Tim says and heads for the door, pauses halfway through the threshold. “You can come in, I guess.”

Jason’s _definitely_ not ready for that, but he doesn’t want to act like a complete asshole, so he walks inside and waits for Tim on one of the bar stools. The couch had felt too comfortable, too much like home. Too much like some place he’s not welcome anymore. 

When he hears the shower come on, Jason relaxes a little and looks around. It’s a mess, just like he remembers. The sink’s full of dishes and there are plates with food dried to them sitting on the coffee table, a stack of old pizza boxes sitting on the bar. There’s a smattering of takeout menus stuck to the fridge with magnets, a box with what looks like computer parts sitting on one end of the sofa, clothes hanging off the back of it and the chair in the corner. If Alfred ever taught Tim anything, it definitely wasn’t how to keep house.

Tim comes back out of his room showered, dressed, and a backpack with his gear in it slung over his shoulder. He looks so good Jason just freezes for a moment, actually _looks_ at him this time. His hair’s a little longer, only a couple of light hairs mixed in with all the dark ones, and there’s patches of scruff on his face, like he hasn’t shaved in a few days. There’s wrinkles in the corners of his eyes and he’s wearing his glasses instead of contacts, but he still looks just as beautiful as he did five years ago.

“Let’s go.” Tim says, jerking Jason out of his thoughts and Jason just nods, hops up from the stool, then pauses.

“Tim,” he says and Tim turns around to look at him, bright eyes narrowing in on him, and fuck, how is he still so _pretty?_ “Should we. Fuck, I don’t know. Do we need to talk about anything before we do this?”

Tim levels a glare at him. “Do you?”

“Not really,” Jason says. It’s not really a lie. There was a time all they did was talk. This is pretty much where it got them. 

“Okay,” Tim says, grabbing his keys. “Then lets go.”

 

: : :

 

“So uh, what’s the deal with them?” Terry asks Dick while they wait for Jason and Tim to arrive, legs dangling off Dick’s counter as he shoves his hand into a bag of chips. Dick still doesn’t think he was too far off with his comparison of Terry and Jason. Sometimes he looks at Terry and for a split second, he can see him in red and yellow and green, laughing and lighting up the night. He still can’t believe this kid, this completely normal, mostly well adjusted, _beautiful_ kid can do what none of them ever could. Terry puts on the cowl and it becomes _him_ , not the other way around. 

Terry throws himself into the job, sure. He works himself stupid and forgets to eat and sleep sometimes when he’s on a particularly frustrating case, but Dick never sees him get lost inside his own skin. He never has to look at Terry and see that cold stare he’s so used to seeing behind the cowl, only tired eyes and a lopsided grin that makes him ache behind his ribs. 

“I don’t think it’s really my place to say,” Dick says, squeezing by Terry to reach a glass behind his head and Terry rolls his eyes.

“You guys and your freakin’ secrets,” he says. “I mean, lets take Jason for instance. You could’ve just told me you had a hot boyfriend, you know.”

Dick chokes on the single malt he just poured, winces at the burn. “Wow okay,” he says, laughing. “That’s not. Jason is not my boyfriend. No one’s my boyfriend. Jesus.”

Terry grins and leans back, resting his head on one of the cabinets, and Dick sees skin when his shirt rides up his stomach, pale and smooth and --

“Not for lack of trying,” Terry says and when he stretches it’s definitely not _necessary_. He’s putting on a _show._ Oh yeah, Jason and Terry having nothing in common at all, huh. 

“Terry --”

“I mean clearly you like boys,” Terry says. “So that’s not the problem.”

“Boys,” Dick snaps. “Is exactly what both of you are.”

“Oh get off it,” Terry says, annoyed. He sits up and takes Dick’s glass out of his hand, swallows down every bit of whiskey in it. “You think I’m old enough to jump off fucking buildings and throw myself into a pit of Jokerz and deal with _Bruce_ , but you don’t think I’m old enough for _this_?”

“I think,” Dick says, then turns his head toward the door. “That they’re here.”

 

: : :

 

Terry fills Tim in on all the details he managed to scrape up when he and Jason hacked into the database that night while Jay and Dick converge in another room. Terry could see the strain between the three of them -- could _feel_ it as soon as Jason and Tim walked into the loft, but just like usual, Terry has no idea what that’s all about. It’s not surprising in the least, every single Bat adjacent person he’s had the pleasure of meeting have metric tons of issues with each other, but still, a little heads up about who and what he’s dealing with sometimes would be _schway._

Watching Tim work is sort of like a religious experience, Terry thinks. He thought _he_ was good at the tech stuff. Not as good as Max obviously, but definitely better than Dick and Bruce. Jay had shown him a thing or two, but Tim. Tim takes to it naturally. A lot of people that haven’t grown up with the tech Terry’s used to have a problem adapting to it, but Tim Drake is clearly not one of those people. Tim taps away at the touch screen, entering codes and algorithms like he’s been doing it his whole life, like it’s as easy as reciting the alphabet. Actually, he’s so good that Terry starts to get bored. Drake clearly doesn’t need his help with anything, so Terry wanders back into the training area, hops up on one of the beams and practices some of the flips Dick showed him that he hasn’t quite perfected yet. 

When he sees Jay and Dick come out of Dick’s room, Terry walks back into the kitchen and grabs a bottle of water. Dick goes to catch up with Tim and Jason sticks around in the kitchen, poking around aimlessly through Dick’s cabinets and drawers like he’s just trying to find something to do. 

When he reaches for the chips, Terry stands in his way and grins, blocking the bag with his body. 

“You can have them,” he says. “When you tell me what the hell is up with everybody.”

“I can have them,” Jason growls, grabbing Terry by his hips and _lifting_ him up, moving him about five feet to the right before setting him down. “Because I want them.”

“You,” Terry says, reaching out and wrapping his fingers around Jason’s bicep. “Are a lot stronger than you look.”

Jason grins at him, but it’s -- different. Uglier.

“Yeah, I’m in pretty good shape for a fifty-six year old, huh?”

Terry doesn’t know what that’s even supposed to mean, but he doesn’t get a chance to ask, because that’s when Dick calls them over.

Tim’s found something.

 

: : :

 

“Oh geeze,” Terry says, looking over Tim’s shoulder. “That’s right in the middle of Price’s territory. I bet it’s him behind all of this, Dick. Hey Tim -- uh, Mr. Drake. Could you like, zoom in on that one building?”

Tim pinches and zooms on one of the building and the resolution is clear as a bell, but it’s not the one Terry meant. 

“No, the other one,” Terry says, then bites his tongue when Tim still doesn’t click on the right one. “Can I? I mean, I know these buildings kind of inside and out. If I could just --”

“Inside and out, huh?” Tim says. “That why you had no clue they were using them to run illegal experiments on children?”

Terry feels himself flush a little, but mostly it’s from anger. He gets that he’s being pushy. And he _gets_ that all these jerks have all this history -- though with Jason, he doesn’t see _how_ , the dude’s his age -- but maybe, just maybe he could help things go a little more smoothly if he actually knew what the fuck was going on. 

And then Dick and Jason kind of awkwardly wander off to busy themselves with something else, leaving Terry with the guy that has it in for him for whatever reason. _Schway._

“Okay,” Terry says. “So I just met you. And I get that the whole Bat thing pretty much turns everyone into an unrepentant asshole eventually, but --”

“You and Jay -- Jason,” Tim says, still typing away at the screen. “How long has that been going on?”

“What?” Terry asks, pulling his eyebrows together. Like yeah, they had a fun night, but it’s not like. Geeze, these guys really are way too observant for their own good. “It hasn’t?”

Tim snorts. “Should probably get better at lying, _Batman.”_

Terry feels that anger rising up in him again, tries to grip down on it and keep it at bay. This really isn’t the time to have some kind of dysfunctional family dispute. “Have I done something to piss you off?”

“Of course not,” Tim says plainly, then taps at the screen twice, enters some coordinates, and pulls up the exact location Terry was trying to get him to pull up earlier. He’s pretty sure Tim knew exactly what building he was talking about the entire time and was just being a dick about it. Awesome. “There.” He says, then zooms in on a separate location inside the building. “That’s where you need to enter.”

Terry just stands there after Tim walks off, confused and angry and kind of annoyed that he’s surprised by any of that anymore and sits down at the computer to make a plan.

 

: : :

 

Jason joins Tim a few minutes after he sees Tim walk out onto the balcony. He doesn’t know what he’s going to say or if he wants to say anything even, so he just stands there. A car flies by and Jason flinches; it doesn’t matter how long he lives, he’s never fucking getting used to that.

“You fucked him,” Tim says, standing at the very edge of the balcony with his hands on the railing. Jason remembers chasing him from rooftop to rooftop, the crazy little smirk on Tim’s face when he’d drop right off the edge of one, not firing a line until the very last minute. Sometimes he’d wait for Jason to catch him. 

“It’s been five years,” Jason says, because Tim left _him._ “I’ve fucked a lot of people.”

“Right,” Tim says and he’s still quiet, still calm, but Jason knows him and he knows the bitterness is there, that he’s struggling to keep it hidden. 

“You know, you really don’t get to be pissed about that,” Jason says and Tim spins around so fast it gives _him_ whiplash. 

“Are you --” Tim starts. “Are you together? Because I think you should’ve fucking told me that before --”

Jason interrupts him with laughter that echoes down into the city below them. “Jesus, no,” he says. “He’s in love with Dick, you idiot.”

The intensity in Tim’s eyes softens a little, but not much. “Then why?”

“Why does anyone?” Jason shrugs, but he knows that’s not good enough. “Because we were both lonely and wanted to forget.”

Tim holds his steely glare for a few more seconds, then turns his head and sighs. “Jay. I --”

They both jump when Dick slides the glass door open. 

“Babs just called. Ten more kids were reported missing last night. It’s time to move.”

“Hey,” Jason says, catching Tim’s arm before he can go back inside. He wants Tim to finish what he was going to say, but he knows now really isn’t the time, so instead he just brushes his thumb over the scar on Tim’s elbow and says, “Be careful.”

The look Tim gives him feels like a knife to the spine, feels like the day Tim said _this isn’t working._

“Yeah,” Tim says bitterly, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. “You too, Jay.”

 

: : :

 

They get to the building right after dark and head to the entrance Tim pointed out, the one that has the least security. Once they get inside though, there’s security fucking everywhere. They get jumped as soon as they make it to the third floor, but Jason and Terry take out most of them pretty quickly. It’s not easier getting up the rest of the floors though and Jason tries not to look over his shoulder every five minutes to see how Tim’s doing, but it’s not going very well. 

“ _Go_ ,” Tim says once they reach the room with the main computer. “The cells are locked. I’ll hack into the system and get the doors open.”

“Tim --” Jason says. The security thugs just keep coming. If they leave Tim there to go get all the kids out --

“I’ll be fine,” Tim says, pulling something that looks like an escrima stick out of his backpack, but with a press of a button it extends into a staff, just like the one he used to use. “Save the kids.”

Jason tears himself away reluctantly and heads down the winding halls with Terry and Dick, beating the shit out of everything that gets in their way. Sure enough, as soon as they reach the room with all the cells they only have to wait a minute or so before Jason hears the click of each one unlocking. 

“Schway,” Terry says as the door begin to slide open electronically. “You gotta teach me that some time, Drake.”

“Maybe,” Tim says in the comms. “It’s really just --”

Jason’s earpiece makes a high pitched frequency sound in his ear and apparently Dick and Terry’s do the same thing because they both yank theirs out at the same time. “Tim?”

Nothing but static. Jason stops in his tracks, frozen with panic. There are about fifty kids in this room that have been locked up and starved for god knows how long who need immediately medical attention. Terry and Dick can’t get them all alone before more security heads there way, but --

But at the other end of the building Tim is by _himself_ and Jason has no idea what’s happening because the fucking comms went down and Tim could be -- he could --

“Jay,” Dick says, laying a strong hand on Jason’s shoulder and squeezing. “Tim knows what he’s doing. These kids need our help more than he does.”

It’s true and deep down he knows its true, but it’s the not knowing that’s still got him frozen. If he could just hear Tim in his ear, just his breathing, just so he’d know he was still --

“You’re going to go back anyway, aren’t you?” Dick asks, frowning and Jason takes a deep, shuddering breath.

He wants to. But he knows if he does, if he doesn’t trust Tim this time, doesn’t let him be who he is, that he’s going to lose him forever.

“No,” he says, closing his eyes for a moment to reset himself. “He’s got this. Let’s go.”

 

: : :

 

Tim wakes up in the hospital. There’s an iv in his arm and a bandage around his middle and one on his head, which feels about as heavy as a fucking planet. Everything smells disgusting the way hospitals do and there’s a constant, annoying beeping sound and christ, he wishes he were anywhere but here.

“Fuck,” he grumbles and his voice is so dry and raspy it burns his throat. He must have been here a while then, so that’s awesome. 

Something crashes to the floor to his right and Tim slowly turns his head to see what happened, feels his chest tighten when he sees Jason sitting up in a chair and staring at him. There’s big, dark bags under his eyes and his hair looks greasy like when he doesn’t wash it for a few days, a couple of bags of takeout littered on the floor around him.

“You look like shit,” Tim says and Jason laughs. 

“As opposed to this zombie aesthetic thing you’ve got going on,” he says and about that time the nurses rush into Tim’s room, pushing Jason out of the way so they can check Tim’s vitals and ask him all sorts of questions about his vision and his memory and if he smells anything weird and who the president is. 

Meanwhile Jason stands in the corner of the room out of the way and Tim sees him talking on the phone at one point, but when the nurses shuffle out he hangs up and shuts the door to Tim’s room, then walks over and carefully sits on the edge of Tim’s bed. 

“How you feeling?”

Tim tries to wet his mouth so he can actually talk, but it’s dry as sandpaper and nothing more than a pathetic rasping noise comes out when he tries to speak. Jason gets up and pours him a glass of water, comes back and sits back down.

“Like I got chewed up by Killer Croc and beat to death with Harley’s mallet,” Tim says finally, the water on his tongue the most amazing thing ever, and gives Jason a tiny smile. “Did I at least get the bad guys?”

Jason rolls his eyes, but he’s still smiling. “Yeah,” he says. “When we found you you were standing over a pretty impressive pile of bodies. But you passed out before we made it out of the building.”

Tim nods. At least he didn’t embarrass the shit out of himself. “How long was I out?”

Jason just gets this grave expression on his face, twists the bed sheets around in his fingers and won’t look at him. “Jay? How long?”

“It’s been a week,” Jason says quietly. “They didn’t know if…” 

Tim reaches out and squeezes his hand. It’s been -- it’s been so fucking long since he’s touched him at all, since he hasn’t _hurt_ at the simple thought of it, but once he finally does, it’s like five years of weight on his heart is lifted. Jason curls his fingers around Tim and squeezes back.

“I’m an idiot,” Jason says, bringing Tim’s hand up to his mouth, kissing his broken, bloodied knuckles that haven’t quite healed thoroughly yet. “I shouldn’t have left you.”

Tim manages to look as angry as he can with bandages and tubes all over him. “Don’t do that shit. I don’t fucking want to hear that. You can’t,” but then he starts to choke again and Jason hands him the glass of water. 

“I know,” Jason says. “I know that, okay? But,” he stands up and runs his hands through his hair. “ You almost _died._ You almost died and I could have prevented it if you weren’t so fucking stubborn and I wouldn’t have had to sit here and watch you breathe through tubes for a fucking week, and I know, okay, I _know_ , but I’m _not ready to lose you._ ”

Tim breathes out and his whole body shudders with it. “But you’re going to.”

The room is quiet for too long and Tim thinks, he’s afraid maybe that was too much, too far, too soon, but then Jason just sighs and says, “One day.”

Then he sits back down on the bed with him. “Maybe even a long time from now if you stop being such a stubborn prick.”

Tim swallows as Jason’s fingers stroke the inside of his wrist. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying,” Jason says, looking at Tim with wet, glossy eyes. “Can I come home?”

Tim’s breath hitches. “Nothing,” he says. “Nothing has changed though.”

“I have,” Jason says matter-of-factly. “I’ve been fucking miserable. How about you?”

Tim grimaces.

“Right. So what the fuck are we doing?”

“I don’t know,” Tim says. “I just can’t --” He turns his head to the side, stares out the window. “I’m old. I’m getting older.”

“I don’t care.”

“You’re -- you could have anybody. You and Terry --”

“Aw jesus, would you drop that shit already? Even if I wasn’t out of my mind in love with you, that kid and I are _way_ too fucking much alike. I don’t want him, idiot. I want you.”

Tim swallows. “You won’t, when I’m all wrinkled and grey and saggy everywhere.”

Jason climbs on the hospital bed, grins as he throws his legs over Tim and straddles him, leans down and kisses him soft and sweet, with just enough hunger to let Tim know that this isn’t pity, this is what he _wants_. This is what he’s always wanted. Will always want. “Try me,” he says against Tim’s mouth. 

The hospital monitors start to go crazy when Jason accidentally detaches one of the thing plugged into him and Tim laughs even though it hurts, curls his fingers around the back of Jason’s neck and pulls him in for another kiss. “Okay,” he says, tasting the same cigarettes Jason’s smoked for _years_ on his tongue. “Okay.”

 

: : :

 

For Tim’s fiftieth, Dick throws a party for him at the loft. Everyone makes it, even Steph and Cass, and Jason smirks when he notices Terry stuff is strewn all over the place, video games and school books and shoes, nearly chokes on his appetizer when he sees Terry come out of Dick’s room wearing one of Dick’s old shirts. 

“I see you decided to stop being an idiot,” Jason says and claps him on the shoulder, grabs a beer out of the fridge and leaves Tim in the kitchen with Dick so he can go catch up with Steph. 

“How’s that going?” Tim asks, leaning back against the counter and twisting the cap off of his beer. In the living room, Terry’s trying to teach Cass how to play one of his new VR games and Jason’s sitting in Steph’s laughing talking about god knows what.

Dick huffs out a laugh and leans against the kitchen counter. “I have no idea _why_ it’s even going, to tell you the truth,” he says, tipping back his scotch. “He could have literally anyone he wanted.”

Tim looks across the room at Jason. Ever, unchanging, beautiful Jason, who looks like a teenager and has the oldest soul of anyone in the room. “Yeah, I kind of think I know how you feel.”

Dick leans in, lowering his voice. “But man. Just between us, he’s wearing me _out._ ”

Tim just laughs. It feels good, he decides; laughing on his birthday. “I’m actually taking B-12 shots for the extra energy.”

“They never _stop_ , you know?”

Tim grins. “I do.”

“To be nineteen again,” Dick sighs and Tim throws up a wall in his head to block out the thoughts he promised himself wouldn’t have anymore.

“I don’t know about _you_ , old man,” Tim says, grinning when he takes another pull from his bottle. “But I’m keeping up pretty good.”

“Ugh,” Dick says. “Fucking children, all of you.”

Tim’s still laughing when Jay comes up to them, throws his arm around his shoulder and plants a big wet kiss on both of their cheeks. 

“What’s funny?”

 

“Oh nothing,” Tim says. “We’re just bonding over being incredibly lucky guys.”

“Well,” Jason says, leering at him exaggeratedly. “How about we get out of Dick’s hair and go get incredibly lucky back at our place, huh?”

Dick groans. “That was awful.”

“More or less awful than if I dragged Tim into the guest room and --”

“Go,” Dick says, shoving both of them, grinning all the while. “Get out of here. Go have crazy sex in your own bed.”

“Beds are boring,” Jason winks, right before Dick shuts the door in his face. 

 

: : : 

As soon as they get home -- and it is, isn’t it. It’s home again. Their home. -- Jason presses Tim right back against the door and crushes their mouth together, kisses him until he has to break for air, then starts unbuttoning Tim’s shirt.

“Oh,” Tim gasps as Jason kisses his way down his chest, getting on his knees and mouthing at his belly. It’s a little softer now, less defined since he stopped going to the gym religiously, trying to keep up with Jason, but Jason doesn’t care. He gets Tim’s jeans open and pulls them off his hips just enough, then swallows his cock down impatiently, like he’s been starving for it all _day._

“Oh god, Jay,” Tim groans and buries his hand in Jason’s hair, looks down and watches his cock slip and slide between Jason’s lips. “Just like that, yeah. God, you’re so good at that.”

Jason moans around him and Tim bites into his bottom lip when he feels the vibrations all the way down to his balls. He pushes on Jason’s head and Jason takes the hint, knows all of Tim’s cues by now, and pops off of him for a minute to mouth his way down Tim’s shaft, then lick at his balls, take them in his mouth and roll them around until Tim is gasping and panting, staring down at Jason like he wants to ruin him and worship him all at once.

He hits the wall behind him with his palm when Jason swallows him down again, moaning at the taste of Tim on his tongue and taking him _deep_ , so deep Tim grunts when he feels the resistance at the back of his throat, feels Jason gag a little. He buries his hands in Jay’s hair and guides him into a good pace, slowly feeds Jason his cock and fucks his mouth, feels him moan and drool around him until it becomes too much and Tim has to tug him by the hair to pull him off, not wanting this to be over just yet.

He hauls Jay up off the floor and drags him against him, gets his hands on his ass and fucks his tongue inside Jay’s mouth and tastes himself _everywhere._

“Fuck me,” Jason murmurs against his jaw, lips brushing over the prickly stubble of Tim’s beard. “Right here.”

Tim groans and follows him down to the floor, quickly tugging off Jason’s shirt and pants, kicks his own pants and boxers off the rest of the way as he kisses Jason, and Jay wraps his legs around him to drag Tim against him, groans when Tim’s dick slides against his, still wet from his mouth.

They move just like that for a few minutes, Jason’s legs wrapped around him, Tim telling him how good he feels as they grind and slide together, until Tim squeezes his hip and says, “Roll over,” and Jason kisses him hard and fast before he lets go, rolls over onto his belly and lifts up to his knees.

Jason moans loud and shameless at the first swipe of Tim’s tongue over his hole, whines and begs for it with his body, jutting his hips back and digging his fingers into the carpet as Tim licks and licks, driving him crazy with every wet little touch of his tongue until Jason is shaking beneath him, harder than _anything_ , sweat dripping down his back, and there’s little patches of pink beard burn all over his ass, on the back of his thighs.

“Please,” Jason says. “Need you _in_ me.”

“In a minute,” Tim murmurs against his skin, pushing his thumb in where his tongue just was. “Come for me like this first.”

Jay _whines_ , high and impatient and desperate, fucks his hips back, then Tim pulls his thumb out and _pushes_ his tongue into him, licks and sucks and gets Jason so wet it starts to drip down his thighs, digs his fingers into Jason’s hips while he fucks his tongue into him, shoving it in deep, then just holding Jason there when he screams and comes, thrashing beneath Tim’s hands and against his mouth.

“I might not be able to do that anymore,” Tim says, squirting lube into his palm and slicking up his cock, gripping Jason’s hips and pulling him backward, down into his lap. Jay whimpers when Tim spreads him open, groans when he guides him down onto his cock. “But I can make you do it and that’s even better.”

Jason screams agains when Tim fucks up into him, throws his arm back and tries to find something to hold onto, ends up grasping at Tim’s hair while Tim sinks his teeth into his neck.

“You feel so good after you’ve come once already,” Tim murmurs next to his ear, sliding his hand up Jason’s chest to pinch and pull at his nipples as he fucks into him with slow, deep movements. “So tight.”

“Oh my god, fuck me already,” Jason groans, trying to get leverage to fuck himself on Tim’s dick, but Tim’s holding him where he wants him. 

“It’s my birthday,” Tim says against Jason’s throat, sliding his hand down Jason’s stomach, pausing right before he gets to his dick, just brushing his fingers through the dark curls there as he continues the slow, deep thrusts. “And all I want is to never stop fucking you.”

Jason whimpers when Tim pushes him out of his lap and onto all four, cries out when Tim grabs hold of him and snaps his hips and just starts _pounding_ into him, fucking him so hard the sound of their skin slapping together and Tim’s harsh, ragged breaths fill the room. 

“I just want,” Tim says, gasping between words, “to stay here forever.” His knees ache already from being on the floor this long and his muscles are screaming at him, but he pushes through it. If anything’s worth it, this is. 

“Please,” Jason moans. “Love feeling you inside me, Tim. Don’t fuckin stop, baby. Oh _fuck._ ”

Tim pulls out then rolls Jason onto his stomach, picks his legs up and throws them over his shoulder and _shoves_ inside of him. He bends Jason in _half_ trying to kiss him, gets so deep Jason feels like he can feel him in the back of his throat. They kiss sloppily as Tim fucks him, sharing breaths and gasps in the same space, until Tim leans forward and presses his forehead against Jay’s. He’s so close, Jason can tell it from how his thrusts have lost any kind of rhythm, can feel it in the tightly wound tension in his muscles. 

“Fuck me,” Jason says, staring into Tim’s eyes, so Tim grabs his ass and lifts his hips a little and just fucking pounds into him, grunting with each thrust, slamming into Jason’s prostate so hard that Jason screams again and comes completely untouched, striping his belly with it.

“God,” Tim pants, his voice raw and ragged, leaning over him, the sweat from his nose dripping onto Jason’s forehead. “I love you so much.”

He follows Jason soon after, clinging to him as he spills inside of him, then finally rolling onto his back when his knees can’t take anymore.

“Holy shit,” Jason says, searching out Tim’s fingers between their bodies while Tim tries to catch his breath.

“Mmm,” Tim says, loosely linking their fingers together. “I agree.”

When Tim finally thinks he can feel his legs again and that his knees won’t give out on him as soon as he tries to stand they get up and take a shower together. Jason washes his hair and then Tim pushes Jason against the wall, gets him off again with three fingers buried inside him and swallows Jason’s moans when he comes. Afterward they get in bed and Jason wraps around Tim from behind, starts breathing long and slow like when he’s about to fall asleep and Tim smiles. 

“Not going to wish me happy birthday?” Tim asks, nudging him in the ribs with his elbow.

“Nah,” Jason hums into Tim’s hair, kisses his shoulder. “Maybe next year.”


End file.
